Chapter 47 - MIDNIGHT AT THE CHAPEL
Daniel backed away from the woman.
“Who are you?”
She smiled sadly.
“You already know.”
“No. I don't.”
“My name is Elena Vale.”
Daniel stared at her.
The woman from the old family photographs.
The woman who had supposedly died before he was born.
Elena handed him a photograph showing Margaret holding a newborn beside Thomas Hale.
“The baby was you,” she explained. “Thomas stole you from me because Margaret had lost her own child.”
Daniel felt sick.
“So Margaret wasn't my mother?”
“She raised you. But she never loved you as yourself.”
Daniel's hands trembled.
“Why didn't you stop them?”
“I tried. Thomas had me imprisoned. By the time I escaped, the records had been changed.”
Elena looked toward the baby.
“This child is the final piece of their experiment.”
Daniel stared at the newborn.
“Whose baby is it?”
Elena hesitated.
“Claire's.”
“Claire is dead.”
“No,” Elena whispered. “The woman who died was Lily.”
Daniel felt the world tilt.
“Then where is Claire?”
Elena looked toward the chapel doors.
“Richard has her.”
A car screeched to a halt outside.
Richard entered with armed guards.
“Give me the child.”
Elena held the baby closer.
“No.”
Richard struck her across the face.
She fell against the altar.
Daniel charged forward, punching Richard in the jaw.
They fought across the chapel until a guard struck Daniel with a baton.
Noah attacked the guard, while Abigail grabbed the baby and ran toward the hidden passage.
Richard pulled a gun.
“Stop!”
Everyone froze.
He pointed it at Daniel.
“You've ruined everything.”
Daniel stood between Richard and his children.
“Then shoot me.”
Richard's finger tightened on the trigger.
A gunshot rang out.
Daniel fell.
Noah screamed.
But the bullet had struck the stone pillar beside Daniel's head.
Elena had fired from the floor.
Richard turned toward her.
Before he could shoot again, police sirens sounded outside.
Richard fled through the cemetery.
Daniel struggled to his feet.
Elena handed him the photograph.
“Find the real Claire.”
“Where?”
“Under the name Sarah Hale.”
Daniel remembered the woman who had warned him about the fifth subject.
He finally understood that every identity in his family had been manipulated.
But the baby remained unexplained.
Noah examined the hospital bracelet.
The name was not Claire's.
It read:
LILY HALE.
Daniel looked toward Elena.
“Why is the baby named after your daughter?”
Elena's face crumpled.
“Because Lily wasn't the first child Richard stole.”
She revealed a second photograph.
It showed three newborns in separate incubators.
Two had been marked deceased.
The third was circled in red.
Beneath it was a handwritten message:
SUBJECT FIVE MUST NEVER MEET HER FATHER.
Daniel stared.
“Who is her father?”
Elena looked directly at him.
“You are.”
Before Daniel could respond, his phone rang.
A woman's voice whispered, “Daniel, if you want your daughter alive, come alone.”
“Who is this?”
“Claire.”
The call ended.
A message arrived.
THE BABY YOU ARE HOLDING IS NOT THE BABY YOU THINK.
Daniel turned toward Abigail.
She was gone.
So was the newborn.
May you like
Only a bloodstained blanket remained.
If Abigail had taken the baby, was she trying to save the child—or was she delivering the final subject into Richard's hands?
Related Stories
